cover image Summer Shift

Summer Shift

Lynn Kiele Bonasia. Touchstone, 15 (336pp) ISBN 978-1-4391-2897-8

After her debut, Some Assembly Required, Bonasia once again mines her Cape Cod upbringing with a cast of coastal smalltown characters. Mary Hopkins is the owner of the Clambake, a typical Cape seafood restaurant whose business ebbs and flows with the summer crowd. The middle-aged Mary has pulled away from people since the death of her husband years before, remaining close only to her great-aunt, Lovey, her last remaining relative. When a summer waitress dies in a tragic car accident, Mary is left with uncomfortably familiar feelings of guilt and remorse, and Aunt Lovey’s rapid deterioration from Alzheimer’s pushes Mary to the limit. She is feeling completely alone when her ex, Dan Bassett, walks back into her life after a 12-year absence. She welcomes his support, but the relationship also unearths a secret about her marriage. As she makes her way through the summer, Mary finds strength and compassion in the unlikeliest of places: the grandmother of the deceased waitress, her aging neighbor, and even her crew of young summer employees. Bonasia delivers a delightful, if elementary and predictable, story of redemption and love. (June)